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Having just submitted an exam this morning, I came to the realisation that, despite having spent seven months studying abroad, I’ve yet to actually address the academic side of my year in this blog. I like to think that this is because the opportunity to travel and immerse myself in Swedish culture has been much more representative of my experience so far than any discussions of exams or assignments, but they are nevertheless all part of the package.

Whilst I don’t think it’s unfair to say that, for most people applying for a year abroad, the prime motivation tends to be the opportunity to live in a new and exciting place, academic considerations are undoubtedly also important.

So, what’s it like to be an undergrad student in Uppsala?

Well, firstly, really different from my previous two years at Durham. I knew that learning in a foreign environment would be a big change, but I had no idea what to expect from the pace or style of teaching, or the workload. Every subject is taught differently, so I can only really speak for the humanities, but here’s my two cents for what they’re worth:

The year is divided into two semesters – running from the end of August to mid-January, and then mid-January to the end of May. Something worth noting about this system is that it’s far more accommodating than its British counterpart in terms of the opportunity for students to stay for half the year. This is pretty handy if you’ve somewhere else to be for the other five months, but, for those of us registered for the whole academic year, it also means you’ve got to be prepared for a lot of reluctant goodbyes after Christmas. The majority of the people I befriended in August ended up leaving mid-January, which made an already cold and gloomy month that little bit more miserable, but thankfully I’d made some wonderful British pals amongst the international crowd, who were also sticking the full year out.

Emotional farewells at Uppsala station

Holidays don’t really exist… This was something I’d spotted when applying, but – used to Durham’s generous month at Christmas and five weeks at Easter – had assumed I’d misunderstood. I hadn’t. There are no official holiday periods in the academic calendar, with only national holidays guaranteeing time off. Between modules, it’s usual to have a few days or a week clear, but, taking Easter for example, there’s only Good Friday and Easter Monday off-timetable. This can take a bit of getting used to, and makes booking trips a little more challenging, but it’s certainly not impossible to travel.

Teaching is modular, with most modules comprising 7.5 ECTS. The standard format would be four 7.5 modules taken back-to-back, per semester, but this can vary a lot.

So far, I’ve taken modules in the department of cultural anthropology, modern languages, economic history, social and economic geography, and history. The method of teaching has varied, but has generally focused more on lectures than seminars, with a couple of two-hour lectures per week as standard. My next module is seminar-based, but so far, their absence has been one of the most noticeable differences for me, as I’d become accustomed to them on quite a frequent basis at Durham, and learnt the hard way to prepare adequately…

Snowy scenes at the beautiful Engelska Parken – the humanities campus

One of the nicest differences is the practically stress-free assessment that the Swedish system seems to encourage. The knowledge that this year doesn’t contribute to my final grade is always reassuring, and takes a lot of the pressure off, but regardless, the system here seems designed to minimise stress – a model I think British universities could learn a lot from. Firstly, there’s the exams, which (though admittedly aren’t ideal – often involving bike rides in the dark to reach locations very far from campus for an 8am start), rather than rinsing you of knowledge in the smallest amount of time feasible for you to write legibly, actually set the clock hours beyond the time necessary for completion. The prospect of a five hour exam is initially pretty daunting, but when you realise you’re only given that much time so everyone can work at their own pace, and walking out after an hour is perfectly acceptable, it all becomes a lot easier. Re-sits are also far from the terror they’ve become at home, being released only a few weeks after the original, and lecturers actively encouraging students not to turn up to the initial exam if they’re under-prepared. Another perk is the take-home exam, a set of questions released by email, which are submitted online after a period of time. With these, you can work entirely at your own pace, with whatever resources you desire, even at home in your pyjamas, if that’s your jam.

Studying in the U.K. had made me accustomed to pretty erratic sleeping-patterns and hours of work, with the first all-nighter a veritable rite of passage for the uni student at home. In Sweden, however, the student culture is far closer to the world of real work. This can be seen most clearly in the hours libraries are open. Who knew that the 24/7 Billy B was such a blessing? The university main library here, Carolina Rediviva, closes at 7pm on a weekday, and 4pm on a weekend. I love the idea of being sufficiently organised to pack-up work in the early evening like a real adult, but I’m also not completely naive… I think it says a lot about Swedish culture that, whilst the libraries shut at seven, you can rely on cafés to be open until 10pm. Priorities.

My first week back for my second and final semester starts tomorrow. This time around I was ready for the inefficient French system and really tried my best to be organised. This meant sending emails to all the modules I wanted to do at the end of the December. However, despite my best efforts I’ve somehow ended up doing something a bit different from my original plan. The good news is that I haven’t missed the first two weeks of classes, so compared to last time, everything is looking good.

Caught up with friends

and my dogs!

After having spent a great few weeks at home catching up with my family as well as managing to see some friends that I hadn’t seen since June it’s safe to say I wasn’t too pleased about coming back to Paris on the 7th of January to do my exams… Just to make it worse I only got back to my flat the night before my first two exams, and it really wasn’t easy dragging all that extra Christmas present weight up four flights of stairs. I couldn’t be happier that my exams are over and after a very well timed trip to London and the return of my boyfriend later, I’m now very excited to be here and to get back into the swing of things.

Now part of the Sorbonne!

Then again, now that the exams are out of the way, I’ve had more time to worry about my seriously full timetable. I feel very very sorry for the actual physics students here who basically work 8:30 – 18:00 every day. A very different experience to a Durham timetable in my opinion. One piece of exciting news is that my University has become part of the Sorbonne, which happened on the 1st of January which meant I came back to new signs and logos all around the campus. This also makes it a lot easier for me when people ask which university I got to, a ‘The Sorbonne’ is a lot simpler than ‘Université Pierre et Marie Curie’!

One thing I noticed straight away once I was back was that after three weeks of only speaking English, I was really struggling to understand any French. It really is one of those things where you need to use it or you’ll lose it! Even after a week of just enjoying Paris and relaxing I’m still not sure I feel ready to start learning in French again. Hopefully, by the end of next week I will have picked it all back up.

So since nothing new or exciting has really happened to me recently, I wanted to take a look back at my favourite moment from my first semester. For me this was realising that I was finally comfortable living in this new city. This was the moment when I realised that I can do the whole year and really enjoy it. I realised that I know the city, I can understand French, I can sort things out in a different language and live all by myself. I can’t say that it was a very memorable moment, or that I remember where I was when it happened, but there definitely was a moment and it was a really great feeling.

I can be French!

To finish off, I wanted to talk about my aims for the next semester. Hopefully by my last blog post I’ll be able to look back at this and say that I achieved what I set out to do. My reason for studying abroad was to experience living in a different country, look at physics from a different point of view but mainly to improve my French. With everything that happened in the first semester, I felt like I didn’t put my all into this, I still improved but I didn’t feel like I made the most of every situation. Because of this, my aims for the next semester are to make more French friends, speak more French in general and really make an effort to do this. Wish me luck!